


Chivalry

by j_s_cavalcante



Category: due South
Genre: M/M, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-30
Updated: 2010-01-30
Packaged: 2017-10-06 20:47:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/57606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/j_s_cavalcante/pseuds/j_s_cavalcante
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ray doesn't need another poncho.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chivalry

**Author's Note:**

  * For [souncanadian](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=souncanadian).



Ray watched Fraser tuck the girl into a cab, take a wad of colorful money out of his hat and slip some to the cabdriver, and wave them off.

 

Christ on a pair of rollerblades.

 

He sighed. “What’d you have to go and do that for?”

 

“She didn’t have cab fare, Ray,” Fraser said in that ultra-reasonable, _anyone with half a brain would know this, Ray_ kind of voice.

 

“She didn’t have cab fare,” Ray repeated back under his breath. “Unbelievable.”

 

“Well, not everyone’s prepared for being questioned by the police, Ray.”

 

Ray rolled his eyes. “So, what, you’re saying it’s that chivalry thing? That’s what you were doing? Because you know, maybe she did the crime. Just because the convenience-store guy decided not to swear out a complaint don’t mean she didn’t do it.”

 

“Nor does it mean she did,” Fraser said.

 

Ray almost wanted to pop him.

 

Almost. It would take a hell of a lot more than this to make Ray pop Fraser, ever again.

 

Not that Ray wouldn’t, if he really had to, if he had to get something serious across to Fraser, like how risking his life jumping off buildings and into lakes and in front of armed criminals was going to backfire one of these days. If it took popping Fraser to wake him up, Ray would pop him.

 

But over a girl who was or wasn’t maybe interested in Ray? Nah, not worth it, no matter how long it had been.

 

 “Well, I’m sorry, Ray,” Fraser said in that precise tone of voice that meant that whatever he was feeling at the moment, _sorry_ was not part of it. “But we couldn’t hold her without evidence and in the absence of a complaint. Did your, er, your police instincts tell you she might have broken the law after all?”

 

Ray dropped his face into his hands and shook his head back and forth a few times. Unfortunately, that failed to clear his head, and when he looked back up, Fraser was kind of staring at him, politely, of course, looking concerned, maybe even worried.

 

Which was not a good look on Fraser, Ray thought. He sighed. “No, Fraser. My instincts did not send up a red flag. There’s only one thing here that reminds me of a red flag, and it’s wearing a big hat and looking clueless.”

 

“Well, then, I fail to…”

 

“You fail, all right. Jeez, Fraser. Didn’t you see she was cute?”

 

Fraser stuck a finger under the edge of his collar and made like he was loosening it, which was total bullshit, because that thing never,_ ever, _loosened up.

 

“I’m afraid I didn’t…well, I’m not…” Clearly it was Fraser’s turn to sigh. “Ray. What’s wrong?”

 

“What’s wrong, Fraser, is that _that—”_ He stabbed his finger in the direction of the long-gone cab—“was a pretty girl. A pretty girl who might’ve even thought I was kind of okay, seeing as I listened to her, and I didn’t fly off the handle and I didn’t get all suspicious, and I am actually more suspicious of the convenience store guy who said she passed him the funny money.”

 

“You behaved with admirable restraint, Ray. Although I doubt Mr. Lipton is involved in any nefarious activities.”

 

“True, but I am going to check him out tomorrow anyway, because that’s my job, Fraser, and if somebody is passing counterfeit two-dollar bills, then I gotta find that out, and if Lipton is just hassling a lot of innocent customers and wasting the PD’s time, then I gotta find that out, too.”

 

“Agreed. However, it’s possible he’s just the…the overly suspicious type.” Fraser’s voice dropped down on that last bit, shading into a whisper.

 

For a whisper, that was pretty damn loud and clear. “What, like _I’m _overly suspicious? That what you’re trying to say? Who’s the one who waved off the cute girl in a taxi just now? Not me! Me, I was thinking I maybe could give her a lift myself.”

 

“Her situation appeared very similar to that of the woman who was passing bad checks at the establishment across the street, the one you, er…”

 

“You mean Linda.”

 

“I don’t recall your telling me her name.”

 

“Not like I could forget it,” Ray said.  He pantomimed getting hit in the chest with a flying poncho. “Take the poncho, Señor,” he mimicked. “I will take Leenda. Leenda, beautiful like her name. I will show her Acapulco.” Ray snorted. “Bet it wasn’t the only thing he showed her.”

 

“That was a most unusual situation,” Fraser said after a moment. “You’re right, I’m sure this young lady wouldn’t have done anything like that.”

 

“Yeah, well, I’ll never know, will I? Because she just took off in that cab that you were so nice to pay for. So now you’re the hero, and I’m just the stupid cop who hassled her in the first place.” He was getting all hot about it again. Fraser was so damn smart most of the time; why did he have to pick a time like now to get clueless?

 

“Did it escape your notice, Fraser, that she liked me? Before you sauntered over looking all buttoned up and red and Canadian, at least. She actually seemed like she might be interested. A pretty girl. Did you miss that? Because I didn’t miss that, and—” he stabbed a finger in Fraser’s general direction—“I did _not_ miss the big Canadian cock-block that just took place. They teach you that move in the Mountie training academy?”

 

“Well, Ray…” Fraser stopped. “Er…cock block?”

 

“Yeah.” Ray gestured. “Like checking in hockey.”

 

“How is hockey relevant to…”

 

“It’s not.” He snapped his fingers. “Stay with me here, Fraser. Block, as in get in the way. Cock, as in the part of me that had a vested interest in the possibility of a pretty girl actually giving me the time of day for once. Maybe even the time of night, if you catch my drift.”

 

“Oh, dear.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Ray, I’m so…I confess, I wasn’t thinking of that possibility. Only of helping her get home, and, of course there is the issue of…well, she reminded me of…”  He stopped, looked away.

 

Ray closed his eyes. Christ, he didn’t know why he hadn’t seen it, but now that he thought about it, the girl had looked enough like Luanne Russell to be her sister. Well, maybe her cousin, anyway, but, yeah. Now he could see why Fraser’d reacted.

 

He was pathetically grateful that Fraser hadn’t said her name out loud. That had not been Ray’s finest hour, either.

 

So this chivalry thing wasn’t really about the girl after all, it was Fraser’s way of trying to protect Ray? Okay, that was weird, it was fucked up, but it was Fraser to a T.

 

He opened his eyes and looked into Fraser’s. They were just as pretty as the girl’s—maybe even prettier—big and innocently blue.

 

 “So you’ll push me off a building, but a good-looking chick who maybe likes me, that’s too dangerous?”

 

“Some women can be dangerous, yes,” Fraser said. He dropped his chin to his chest like he expected to be popped in the head. Like he deserved it and was gonna stand there and take it.

 

“Aw, Jeez. Fraser.” Ray didn’t know how this suddenly was about Fraser and not about Ray getting some—well, Ray _not_ getting some, as usual—but he knew his partner had trauma from the past, _much_ bigger trauma than any of Ray’s Stella problems, even, and that was saying something.

 

Maybe Fraser really was looking out for Ray.

 

Maybe the girl did do it.

 

Maybe Ray’s balls were going to turn bright blue and explode, too.

 

Damn.

 

Well, done was doneski, Ray knew that. And it wasn’t like the girl was a sure thing, anyway. Ray’d probably imagined the way she smiled at him. She’d taken off fast enough, hadn’t she, when the Mountie called her a cab? That was a big clue, and you didn’t need to be a professional detective to figure it out.

 

So there was no point in Ray getting all bent out of shape over her, was there? And there was every reason to stick with his best buddy and not make him feel even worse than he obviously already did. It wasn’t Fraser’s fault he was clueless about women.

 

Ray sighed a big sigh. “Sorry, Fraser, you’re right. You’re right. I give up. She hopped in that taxi like she was glad to scram out of here.”

 

“I’m sure that had nothing to do with you, Ray. It’s a police station. She’d been accused of a crime.”

 

“Forget it, buddy. It’s just my thing, you know.”

 

“Your, er, thing?”

 

“You know. That thing where I never get any sex, but I still think about women once in a while. Still hope once in a while. Which, I should just give up at this point, like you.” He stuck his hands in his pockets. “How do you do that, Frase? How do you turn it off? ’Cause I don’t need this, I don’t need another Stella, and I sure as hell don’t need another poncho.”

 

“I don’t turn it off, Ray.”

 

“Well, you don’t…you know.” Ray gestured.

 

“Don’t what?”

 

“You don’t go through this kind of thing.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair. “Chasing after the wrong chick just ’cause she looks good to you at the moment.”

 

“I hope that means I learned my lesson,” Fraser said. He still wasn’t meeting Ray’s eyes.

 

“So you gave up. I get that, I do. I think I’m ready to give up, too. I just…how do you deal? How do you get comfortable with that? You know, with thinking you’re probably never, ever going to…”

 

 “Could we possibly talk about something else?” Fraser looked really uncomfortable, which he had to be, because he didn’t usually interrupt, it not being polite and Mountie-like. So maybe he wasn’t exactly comfortablewith the situation, but was just…managing, somehow.

 

Either way, there was no call for Ray to give Fraser a hard time over it.

 

The chivalry thing, though. How about that, that Fraser was being chivalrous to _Ray_ by chasing the girl off?  It was so screwed up…and yet Ray kind of melted when he thought about it. His partner, the guy who tossed him in the lake every month or so despite the fact that he couldn’t really swim, was trying to _protect_ him. Go figure.

 

He clapped Fraser on the shoulder.  “C’mon, buddy. Car’s that way.”

 

Fraser looked up. “You want to question Mr. Lipton now?”

 

“No, we are going to save that for Monday, because in case you didn’t notice, it’s after six on a Friday night, and when you came out here with Miss Funny Money, I got my jacket and clocked out.” He stuck his hand in his pocket and jangled his keys.

 

Fraser was looking at Ray’s leather jacket like he was stunned to see it on him, which was just stupid, since Fraser always noticed everything.

 

Ray figured maybe Fraser had low blood-sugar. “You skipped lunch, didn’t you?” he accused. “All right, come on. It is pizza time _chez _Ray. We’ll stop at Angelino’s on the way so I don’t have to try to talk Tony into the pineapple, and you can get blubber or whatever weird thing you want to try this week.”

 

“I didn’t know you spoke French, Ray,” Fraser said in his way-too-casual, _I am making small-talk, which means I am hiding something_ voice.

 

“Huh? I don’t.”

 

Fraser opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again. “Er…pizza would be fine, Ray. Ah, if you’re certain you want my company, uh, I know I’m not…” He looked over towards where the cab had gone.

 

“Chill, Fraser. Of course I want your company.” He slung an arm around Fraser’s shoulders and steered him toward the car. “Look, you probably saved me a lot of heartache, I got to admit.”

 

“Perhaps, but you could have…”

 

“I could’ve gotten laid,” Ray finished for him, not that Fraser would have put it exactly that way. “Yeah, maybe in my dreams. Look, it’s okay. I’m good. With the benefit of a few minutes of hindsight, what I’m seeing is that I could’ve tried to date her, and even in the unlikely event that she went along with that, me getting laid would still be a long shot.

 

“And it probably wouldn’t have happened tonight, anyway. I can tell you how tonight would’ve ended up. It would’ve ended up with me crying in my beer feeling sorry for myself and being too upset to eat any pizza. Instead, I’m going to kick back with my best buddy, eat the pizza, maybe have a beer without any tears in it, and go to bed happy.”

 

Fraser’s smile could have lit up half of Chicago. “It sounds—how do you say it, Ray? It sounds like a plan.”

 

“That it does.” Ray was grinning, too, and he didn’t know whether that thing was true about how you could make yourself feel better just by smiling, some chemical thing that your brain did, or whether you felt happier first and then smiled and then it snowballed from there, but he did feel better. The heaviness kind of lifted off him, and he got in the car with Fraser and headed for Angelino’s, where they didn’t have a single street informant working for them, and they’d put anything on his pizza that he wanted.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a fic exchange, to souncanadian's prompt: "What'd ya have to go and do that for?!"


End file.
